A History of New York in 27 Buildings: The 400-Year Untold Story of an American Metropolis

by Sam Roberts

From the urban affairs correspondent of the New York Times--the story of a city through twenty-seven structures that define it.

As New York is poised to celebrate its four hundredth anniversary, New York Times correspondent Sam Roberts tells the story of the city through bricks, glass, wood, and mortar, revealing why and how it evolved into the nation's biggest and most influential.

From the seven hundred thousand or so buildings in New York, Roberts selects twenty-seven that, in the past four centuries, have been the most emblematic of the city's economic, social, and political evolution. He describes not only the buildings and how they came to be, but also their enduring impact on the city and its people and how the consequences of the construction often reverberated around the world.

A few structures, such as the Empire State Building, are architectural icons, but Roberts goes beyond the familiar with intriguing stories of the personalities and exploits behind the unrivaled skyscraper's construction. Some stretch the definition of buildings, to include the city's oldest bridge and the landmark Coney Island Boardwalk. Others offer surprises: where the United Nations General Assembly first met; a hidden hub of global internet traffic; a nondescript factory that produced billions of dollars of currency in the poorest neighborhood in the country; and the buildings that triggered the Depression and launched the New Deal.

With his deep knowledge of the city and penchant for fascinating facts, Roberts brings to light the brilliant architecture, remarkable history, and bright future of the greatest city in the world.

Genres: History, New York, Nonfiction, Architecture

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2019

About the author

Sam Roberts, a 50-year veteran of New York journalism, is an obituaries reporter and formerly the Urban Affairs correspondent at the New York Times. He has hosted the New York Times "Close Up” on TV and the podcasts "Only in New York," anthologized in a book of the same name, and "The Caucus." He is the author of The New Yorkers, A History of New York in 27 Buildings, A History of New York in 101 Objects, and Grand Central, among other books. He has written for the NYT Magazine, the New Republic, New York, Vanity Fair, Foreign Affairs, and Air Mail. A history adviser to Federal Hall, he lives in New York with his wife.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning about buildings that are not as well known. Well-written for the most part although a few paragraph transitions were unclear with the author jumping from one topic to another. I learned a lot of new information about NYC. It was especially interesting learning the details behind the brown stone apartment that was left in place when they built a skyscraper because one resident refused to move out. I previously walked by the building and wondered about it! Side-note: Found two spelling errors-Covney Island instead of Coney Island and filim instead of film.

[Swagdad69 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Roberts! Good sir, I do believe your book slaps indubitably concisely. It was a very pleasant read.

Roberts does a great job of choosing 27 buildings - with a key criteria being the building still exists today - that let him narrate much of NYC's history: beginning with the Bowne house built circa 1661 and ending with 60 Hudson St. (Western Union's former headquarters) built in 1930. I think this a great book for anyone looking to build their knowledge about NYC. It is short, to the point, void of opinion, and jammed with facts. Here are some standouts:

1. Federal Hall: where George Washington was inaugurated and where the first Congress convened.(Congress reconvened here in 2002 for the first time since 1790 in the wake of 9/11.)

2. Tweed Courthouse: the name comes from the scumbag Boss Tweed. Tweed - who was, inter alia, a congressman and on the NY County Board - plundered the city for millions. In 1871, still unfinished 10 years after construction began, it had already cost 16x the Brooklyn counterpart, and by the end the NY Times estimated it cost (in today's dollars) about three billion to complete.

3. The Flatiron Building: named for the junction and not the other way around. The Flatiron created a massive wind-tunnel effect at 23rd because of its shape, which crowds would gather to watch. It even resulted in the death of a young boy who was swept into the middle of the street, and the shattering of storefront glass.

4. Lyceum Theatre: NYC's oldest remaining commercial playhouse still serving the legitimate stage, and was the first theatre officially landmarked by the city.

5. First Houses: located at 97 orchard and now the tenement museum, were the first public low income housing project in the USA, and were aimed at tenants who could only afford $6.05 a month in rent.

Not much else to say here. NYC is dorty.

4/5 stars. 7/10 would recommend. Slappin' concisely.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. 4.5.

[Todd Rhoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically informative

Crisp, clean, and absolutely loaded with all the “I didn’t know that!” historical facts on these magnificent buildings of this beautiful and audacious city. Many thanks, Mr. Roberts!

[Peter Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A History of New York in 27 Buildings, the 400-year untold story of an American metropolis,” by Sam Roberts (Bloomsbury, 2019). Roberts, a long-time NYTimes reporter, has written about a lot of the city’s history, including “A History of New York in 101 Objects.” He traces parts of the development of the city chronologically, using buildings that still exist. He starts with the Bowne House, begun in 1661 (traces of the development of the city’s heterogeneity), through St. Paul’s Chapel and various familiar or unknown places (such as 123 Lexington Ave., a brownstone), the Tweed Courthouse, the Asch Building (scene of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, with a description of a shirtwaist), the IRT Powerhouse, and so forth. Much of what it tells is fascinating, although because of the structure the image one gets of the city is episodic and fragmented. The writing is clear and crisp. But for whatever reason I just wanted to get through it. Maybe I wanted something more profound. Something that struck me: several times he quotes Ayn Rand on cities. No reason she couldn’t have written some good lines.

https://www.nytimes.com/by/sam-roberts (note: this bio has not been updated since 2013 or so.)

[Joe McMahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of my review is Wonders, Surprises, and obvious Errors.. I hope to edit this review later. The Bank of the United States, scene of a famous run on the bank, is now a laundromat, near the stairway to the Freeman Street station of the #2 and #5 train. In earlier days, Freeman Street was the terminal of some Third Avenue local trains. The author Sam Roberts is exceedingly familiar with New York subway stations. He should have caught his Fremont error on page 219.
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The destination signs on the D train say 205th Street, so that was probably in the author's head, when he erred about the location of the Hunter College gym, on page 236. It's near the 200th Street station.
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On page 34, he has the New York State legislature moving to Albany in 1897. Sorry, the year was 1797.
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[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberts is not so much interested in the architecture as he is in the way the various buildings he chose were involved with a variety of historical events. That approach is very interesting, given that many of the buildings are rather drab or industrial, like the Domino Sugar Refinery building or the American Bank Note Plant, which were most important in the historical events that happened in those buildings. The Asch Building is where the Triangle Shirtwaist fire happened.
The author is a rather elegant stylist, making the book a delight to read. Read as bedtime reading, for which the individual essays were ideal. A book to keep and reread into.

[Caroline Errico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly as a lover of both Architecture and New York History I probably set my expectations too high for this one. Halfway through I had become convinced that the author did not research enough to become an expert on either. Don't get me wrong, you are warned up front that this is NOT a book on architecture but for a city whose development was as fascinating as New York's I kind of expected the delivery of the history to be little less dry.
I was disappointed

two stars just for the interesting selection of buildings

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, entertaining and well-curated. Roberts picks a few very well-known buildings (Empire State, Grand Central Station, City Hall, etc) and a number of more obscure ones that are historically important and hiding in plain sight, and gives the history of each one in a short, accessible chapter. Every one of them is still standing, and it's interesting to look at Google Maps street view as a companion to the book. For a New Yorker it's all pretty fascinating. I can't say I love Robert's style - he overuses parentheses, and likes to throw in some generally lame puns - but I learned a lot about my city from his enjoyable book.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting attempt to explore the history of NYC through architecture. I'm not sure it succeeds as a coherent history of NYC, though I'm also not sure Roberts was really attempting to do any such thing. It's more a collection of fascinating historical anecdotes that together work to explain chunks of the city's history. Roberts does tend towards a lot of parentheticals in his writing, which may be distracting for some but didn't generally bother me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What fun...obviously not really a history of New York City...but a slice of history of New York City. Starting with the Bowne House in Flushing, NY (17th century) through the Western Union building in the 1930s, this book is an eclectic look at buildings and history. Coney Island! Domino Sugar! The Empire State Building!

A great book for NYC history buffs...if you're looking for a gift...there's a good chance they don't have it.

[tana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a book about cities and history and a novice level discussion of architecture - but there’s too much Ayn Rand up in here and I just don’t like her hypocritical, overrated, colonialism is aok, selfishness as a philosophy, dangerously utilized rational egoism tripe, ultimately juvenile writing style, racist and self hating ass at allllllllllll…so her quotes took me out of the book just a skosh 😄

[henreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book about the physical attributes of a city, it was woefully under stocked with actual demonstrations of the content. I think it would have made the book more memorable, had there been more pictures of the buildings and their developments.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are no footnotes or sources listed for the information the author used to write these stories.
The subject matter is very interesting but for a reader who is serious about history it is unsatisfactory.

Someone obviously made the decision to publish this book this way.

[Alicia Primer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very engaging anecdotal history, a must for lovers of NYC, of history and of architecture. Only wish there were more illustrations.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a cool book. So much that people don’t know about the buildings and history of them and the people that made them.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love architecture. I love history. I love New York City. I loved this book.

[Salim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some surprising historical bits

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book & found it informative. Unless you enjoy history & love New York City, you probably won’t enjoy this book.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting sampling.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very food template for me to use for my own writing.

[Heiki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eclectic selection by the author. I would have preferred to learn more about historic buildings in terms of architectural value, not historical value. Thus, picked up the wrong book for the task.

[Kathryn]

I skimmed, but a book like this should really have pictures. Lots of pictures. Architecture-- if you cannot inhabit the space-- is a visual medium.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was little, my father, a NYC Fireman, would carry me around like a pack of shirts from a Chinese laundry to many of these buildings, telling me to remember them and that they were important. But he never told me why; this book fills in the gaps. It also informs you why a commuter is called a commuter..This book was selected by friends for me from The Corner Bookstore NYC.